Incidence of drug resistance was not as high as reported by some other workers and majority of the cases showed satisfactory outcome.

Background: Category II tuberculosis (TB) patients (i.e. re-treatment TB patients) are at an increased risk for defaulting on treatment compared to Category I TB patients. Therefore, extra steps need to be taken to help Category II TB patients follow through with their treatment. The goal of this study was to examine the effectiveness of three different types of interventions to help improve treatment success rates among Category II patients. Materials and Methods: Three different interventions that were implemented among Category II TB patients in the Bardhaman, Hugli, Malda and Murshidabad districts in West Bengal, India, were: 1) setting up group patient provider meetings (PPMs), 2) making home visits and reinforcing the message of full course of treatment, and 3) linking poor TB patients to social welfare schemes (SWSs) to incentivize them to complete treatment. Results: PPMs and SWSs improved treatment success rates among Category II patients. The treatment success rates for patients who received PPMs and patients who received SWSs were 94.2% and 90.7%, respectively, compared to the 74.5% treatment success rate of patients who received no intervention. The effectiveness of home visits, however, depended on the number of home visits the patient received. Conclusion: PPMs and SWSs improve treatment success among Category II TB patients and may easily be incorporated in Directly Observed Treatment, Short-Course programming as feasible ways. A conclusion regarding home visits, however, could not be drawn from this study.